Out with the old

I've been itching to make over my room for....okay...a couple of weeks.  Once I set my mind to something, it's go hard or go home.  But I have kinda been wanting to do something drastic for awhile.  The divorce should be final in about a month, and redoing my room just felt right.  Letting go of the pain and the heartache, dealing with the loneliness, trusting that my God has a plan for me, and perfect timing in that plan, has been a hard road.  A long road.  A road I'm still on more than I'd like to admit.  And this project gave me lots of time to think.  I did the entire thing by myself- from choosing the paint colors to every last stitch- and I spent all of it in prayer and meditation.  I've listened to more Jeremy Camp and Casting Crowns in the last week than I probably have ever in my life combined. 

Without further adieu.....the before-

 

(I didn't choose the paint color, it was there when we bought the house)

I reused this picture from when I redid my room the last time, featured here.

And after!

 

(FYI Mom, you can click on the picture and it will make it bigger and you can scroll through them)

I know.  It's TOTALLY different. And not for everybody.  But I love it.  Jenn came over tonight to bring me a couple of prints she printed off for me, and she said it was exactly the kind of room she wanted.  Now THAT is a compliment. The only thing I didn't make or reuse was the bedspread, sheets, and dust ruffle. Ta da!

 

 

While the window curtains were plain white panels I had sewn onto the teal curtains before, I just took them off and reused them. The curtain for the bathroom I made totally from scratch. I originally bought the blue fabric to make into pillows (it's from Amy Butler's new Cameo line), but I got it and loved it so much I couldn't cut it up.  So I  improvised this curtain out of another half a yard of red fabric and lined it with a sheet I couldn't use anymore.  The sheet fabric was thicker than if I just bought some broad cloth, plus there was plenty to use as backing for the pillows.  The pictures to the left of it are just clothes pinned to a piece of twine. In the right hand corner is Mom's old sewing machine.  It used to have the tv on it, but not only does the tv not switch channels any more, I don't have cable, so I thought it was pointless to have in there.  More space for picture frames and candles!

 

This is the other wall.  I painted the dresser and the nightstand a mustard yellow.  That dresser is what I grew up with in my room, which my parents got from my grandparents, who bought it for my dad at some point.  Yeah.  It's old.  And it hadn't been repainted since I was 7, so, it was time. I scrubbed at the mirror to get all the tape glue off from over the years and put more twine across the top to clip bible verses or more pictures to.  What can I say, I'm sentimental at heart.

 

Here's a close up of the wall art.  I made the top canvas (it says "give me jesus, give me jesus, you can have all this world, just give me jesus"), the scrappy hoop,  and the other hoop (it's not quiet finished. It says "halleluiah, grace like rain, falls down on me" and then it will have a rain cloud with drops coming down).  I purchased the bible verse from Printable Wisdom and had Jenn print it and one of her Texas prints from her shop, HarperJubilee. The picture you've seen, it's one she took from our photo session last month.

 

 And finally, the pillows I made.  I love these pillows.  I love that I was finally able to use all of my very favorite fabrics in one place.  The yellow rose fabric was Evan's nursing cover.  The navy floral is her diaper bag, and the navy/blue/green floral is one of my couch cushion covers.  Yes.  My sheet are ORANGE. The little yellow wooden sign says "god is so good, he's so good to me" and the picture frame I painted and holds this picture:

It's another one from our session with Jenn, and it's probably one of my very favorite family photos ever.  Every time I see it I just wanna squeeze the stuffing out of that boy.  I love him so much. And I love my girl too.  They don't get much prettier than that one.  And the mirror above my bed?  I took it to the photo shoot too.  My grandmother gave it to me for my first birthday, and I have this picture where it's laying on the floor and I'm looking into it.  I really wanted that same picture with the same frame for Evan's first birthday, and I got my wish. 

She did such a great job with my girl! I love how you can see all the pearls she's wearing.  The short strand is mine, the middle strand is Mom's, and the longest strand is Grandmother's, so she's got three generations of jewels around her neck.  It was just coincidence that they were all different lengths.  Plus pearl is her (and my) birthstone- double whammy meaning right there.

Sneak Peek and 4 year old conversations

Sorry that I was doing so good last week and then fell silent for awhile.  I've got good reason.  I decided within a week that I wanted to redo my room and started on the execution.  I don't have ANY money to spare, so I've done all the work with my little fingers (well, just about).  Sneak peek?

 

That's part of the wall collage I'm creating.  It was my first go at scrappy art, and lemme tell you, it was trickier than I thought it would be. It took me as long to make that 11 inches worth of fabric as it did the night before to make three whole pillows. Yeah.

Also, when I was painting the other day, I mistakenly thought I could paint just a leeettle bit after nap time was over.

Thanks for correcting me, baby girl.

Speaking of that baby girl, as of Sunday, she's a full time walker.

Does your heart not just burst to pieces looking at that sweet face? Where is my baaaabeeeeee at? This is such a little girl!

Who also has enough hair for the cutest pig tails you've ever seen in your life.

But apparently she doesn't want to loose the baby fat due to the fact that she's always on the go, soooo.......

Yeah.  Bottom's up, girlfriend. 

I do have some sad news though.  My eldest has made it 4 years with all 10 finger nails, but my youngest only made it a year and she's down to 9.  :(  Last week or so she and Luke were fighting/playing a game (depends on which child you look at) about having his door closed.  She wanted it open to go in, he was sitting with his back against it to keep it closed and her out. Guess you can see where this is going.  Her finger got caught and damaged the nail so badly that it fell of as one whole piece yesterday.  It makes me cringe to look at it.  And I realize that I've got a variety of pictures of Evan and not any on my phone of Luke, but he doesn't stay still enough to take a picture.  Luckily John got some at the game this last week.

He's doing so much better! He's leaving his helmet on when he runs to base, he's hustling after the ball, and he pays attention to the game 60% of the time.  Whoo hoo! 

Oh man, he kills me.  Mom brought the kids up to work today to eat lunch with me, so we headed to the mall so he could get Chick Fil A and we could look for some better walking shoes for Evan.  As we sat down at a table, he looked all around and said "Wow Mom.  This is a pretty big building."

What 4 year old says that?!

More recent conversations:

Luke: Hey! That that was a red wight!

Me: Yes, but it was only a little red.

Luke: *huff* Mom.  That was not a good choice.

Me: *silence*

Me: *standing in closet* Aw man, I don't know what to wear this morning.

Luke: *sititng on floor watching* You can wear one of my shirts if you want.

Me: Oh, thank you baby.  But I think your shirts might be a little too small.

Luke: Noooo.  I think they are just right.

L: I don't have to eat a lot of food.

M: You will have to eat food or you will die.

L: Die? And you will put me on a cross?

M: What? No.  I would never put you on a cross. Who was on a cross?

L: Jesus. There is a cross in my bible.  There are a lot of words in my bible.  12345678910 words. That's a lot of words.  My blue bible doesn't have a lot of words.  Just a couple of words.  We can read all the words.  Just a few.

One morning he was watching Super Why, where they introduce themselves.  I was standing in the kitchen watching him as he sat on the couch watching it.  The last thing in the theme song is where they introduce themselves and then they say "Now say your name!"  All the sudden he shouts "L-U-K-E  ME!

Man oh man do I love that kid.

Rangers Game

Saturday was Ashley's birthday.  She turned the big 2-5. And for her birthday celebration, she chose to take Luke to his very first Rangers game.  (she also chose to go sky diving.  But that's another story)

I don't know if you are aware, but this is Texas.  And in Texas it gets hot.  And baseball lasts for a really long time.  And 13 month old baby girls are very wiggly. 

 

All that to say, taking Evan would have been a disaster.  So, her other grandparents came over and kept her while we headed out.  Thank goodness, she would have been miserable.  Which would have made us all miserable.

We had a great time.  For all 10 innings. There were hot dogs and hamburgers and peanuts and cotton candy. Luke did awesome, and luckily I am a super savvy momma and realized he was not going to make it all the way through the game without some kind of intervention.  Bring on the iPad!  He played and played and also took pictures.  I'm now the proud owner of about 50 million of these.

4th of July

Our 4th was a quiet one this year.  The kids thought that it was totally appropriate to get the day started at 6:30 in the morning.  I realize that it was a Wednesday, but still.  That's early.  So I did what any good mother would do and put the boy to work.

He's gotta learn sometime that he has to earn his keep around here. We had breakfast and soon the girly girl went down for her morning nap.  This left the boy and I with some free time.  Science experiments it was!

I bought him this fun science kit for his birthday.  We make fizzy colored water, mixed new colors up, made crystals grow into jelly blobs, and made snow.  Then Evan was up.  By 10:30 it felt like we'd lived an entire day, and the bickering was already wearing me thin. 

Solution?  Head to Old Navy to kill some time. Before we left I made them take a picture in their 4th of July outfits.  Neither one was thrilled.

We went to Old Navy and Walmart, where we got dinner items (sausage and mac n cheese per request) and dessert items (I decided camp fire or no camp fire, we needed s'mores).  Came home, lunch was had, naps were had, and we played a little bit more.  I tried to grill the sausage for dinner.  Burnt it to a crisp.  But the gas stove top s'mores?  Big hit. Nothing says "I love America" like holding a fork over the stove and partaking in burnt marshmallow with chocolate and graham cracker.

Finally it was time to load up and see some fireworks.  We went back to the same field as last year, and Luke was thrilled to run around with Papa.  (although, he was a bit disappointed there was no "rizbees" to throw around.  That would be frisbee in Luke talk.)

Playing catch

No one wanted to be cooperative for this group photo either.

She LOVED climbing in this chair and then face diving off the front. There was also a cute picture of her "talking" on my phone, but I'm pretty sure mom would not appreciate her being in the back ground.  The kids enjoyed the fireworks and getting to stay up so late.  I was actually shocked at how well Evan did, considering we didn't leave the house till her bed time.  Speaking of that girl, I can't believe that last year on the 4th, she was this squishy.  *sniff sniff* Cue nostalgic tears.

The next day I actually had jury duty.  Not exactly how I wanted to spend my Thursday, so I thought.  But I didn't have to be there till 9, and it was in Lewisville so I didn't have to drive but 5 minutes to get there (as opposed to 30 to get to work at 8).  Then, I was not chosen and consequently released by 10:30.  What did I choose to do with the rest of my day?

 I had the whole pool to myself.  Mom and Dad had already taken the kids to an aviation museum at Love Field airport, so I had the whole early afternoon to myself.  I don't see an opportunity like that happening...well....ever....again, so I made the most of it.  And it was just what I needed.

(Mostly) Wordless Wednesday Photo Dump

So, going through my phone trying to see what I needed to pull off of my 4th of July post and the Ranger game post, I realized there were a crap ton of pictures that got lost in the shuffle and never got posted.  I'm here to remedy that today.  SO! Get ready for a barrage of random pictures of mostly Evan and I.  She's still compact enough to be forced into photos with me.  Luke? Not so much.  Getting a picture with him is like pulling teeth.

 

 

(this is an exact reflection of his personality. and the reason it's hard to get good photos of him.  he knew what I wanted. it wasn't until the last second that he gave it to me. stinker.)

 

 

More from the trip:

 She way to concerned with that dang peach.

 And way to concerned with eating sand.

 And finally chowing down on her first kids meal ordered just for her.  You don't get to be a giant baby without your world revolving around food.

Quick trip to the beach

A lot happened last week with lots of pictures I need to organize and post.  But that can wait till tomorrow.  Or Friday.  Just being honest. Right now I need to recount my quick trip to Galveston with my girl. 

Yep.  You read that right. 

Saturday night Luke spent the night at Mom and Dad's because Sunday morning Mom and Ashley were taking him to Colorado City to visit my grandfather.  He's been BEGGING to go and Mom usually goes out there at least once per summer, so I consented to the whole killing-two-birds-with-one-stone concept and let them take him. 

This left me with one child and lots of free time.  So, I decided to go somewhere.  And that somewhere turned out to be Galveston.  It's only 5 hours from here to there, but it took us 6 with the stops and whatnot. At 9:00 am I tossed a few things in a bag (my new Vera Bradely Grand Traveler bag, to be exact.  The one I bought with my birthday money.  It's been begging me to go somewhere.  Taunting me, if you will.)

First stop?  A farm store with fresh produce.

(excuse the crummy photos, I was balancing a diaper bag on one shoulder, a baby on the other hip, and attempting to not drop the camera)

See those buckets of blueberries?  I bought one, along with a bag of peaches, a sandwich, and a homemade chocolate fried pie.  Hey, it was lunch time.  Also, I now have more blueberries and peaches than I know what to do with.  The produce was a fresh and pesticide free, so we just plopped down outside and started eating the berries by the hand full.  Then Evan reached over before I could stop her and grabbed a peach....

(cheesin' at all the people passing us by, so proud of herself for eating a peach like a big girl)

She LOVED it!  I mean loved it.  You should have seen the fit when I took it away from her.  Apparently not letting your toddler eat a peach pit is the meanest. thing. ever.

Later we stopped at Sonic so she could crawl around in the back of the car.  Soon enough Houston loomed in front of us. 

We didn't stop in Houston though, just drove straight through.  Actually, we drove until we hit the ocean.  Literally.  If you aren't familiar with highway 45, it actually dead ends on the beach. 

Which obviously lead us to our next order of business.  Beach time!

She was THRILLED with the sand and the water.  You should have heard the squeals and giggles that commenced.  She splashed, ate sand, tried to crawl out to deeper water, kicked, etc. 

This is the only picture I had a stranger take of us.  As you can see, it's by no means Mexico.  It's murky and a little fishy smelling, but sand is sand, ocean is ocean, and my girl and I got to stand on it's brink and feel the weight of creation in the presence of our Creator. 

Okay I did.  I think Evan mostly felt like she wanted to get down and play.

After we played for awhile I decided it was time to get a hotel room.  Luckily the one right across the street looked nice, and it turns out I was right.  It was lovely.  And laying in bed, this was my view. 

After I got the (2) bags up to the room, we went down to the hotel pool to wash the sand off and kill a few more minutes before getting ready for dinner.  I let Evan have another peach.

She had to lose a floatie to be able to get her hand to her mouth.

Dinner was a delicious fare of fish tacos, then I ran over to Target for more sunscreen and snacks for me for after Evan went to bed.  Only draw back to traveling with a baby- early bed time and no where for me to go.  On our way back to the hotel after Target, a flock of sea gulls flew up right in front of me, and I accidentally hit one with the grille of my car.  All I saw in the rear view mirror was a pouf of feathers and a body rolling down the street.  :(  My bad, bird. 

Monday morning we slept till 8 and then just hung around the room until check out time.  The good thing about traveling with a toddler?  She totally entertains herself.  In the cutest ways possible. 

By 10:30 we were packed up and ready to hit the road to come home.  It was a sweet, short trip.  Just what I needed.  I was so glad to get to have such a special time with my baby girl.  While I'm looking forward to doing things just with Luke, mother/son things, there is something about having girl time that is totally different. If she had been a little older, we would have painted nails, I would have fixed her makeup, and she would have played with my hair. 

And just like that we were home.

Dallas.

We played with her toys, had pancakes with strawberries and raspberries and a gazillion more blueberries.  Today I'm back a work.  I'm glad I got the chance to be spontaneous.  It's been since.....college? since I've gotten to do something like that.  I've missed it.  Last week was a hard week.  Cody started the divorce papers.  A friendship that I've held very dear ended.  Evan pretty much got weaned.  The emotional toll was a hefty one and all the time in the car gave me a chance for lots of prayer.  It was good.

P.S.- I saw a couple of statues.  The Sam Houston one was just on the side of the highway, and the other one was in the middle of Galveston.  I thought they were interesting.